RWBY: A Game of Shadows
by WhiteLikRoses
Summary: Pyrrha's death has been hard on everyone. But when Ren discovers some old letters of Pyrrha's, Ruby decides to write this person back. {T for depictions of violence and some swearing which will occur in later chapters of the story.)


_Author's Notes: (The current story you're about to read is a crossover of RWBY and YU-GI-OH! But please be aware, the Yugi that I have chosen to portray is the one from Season 0, which was the first YU-GI-Oh! series, coming out before even Dual Monsters which was released in 2000 and is the version most people are familiar with. I felt I need to put this here in case people were to tell me that Yami/Atem's personality is out of place._

 _There is no 'dueling', so to speak, but Yugi will utilize the monsters. And while there is no 'life points' mechanic, I've also found a way around that as well._

 _I know not everyone is going to be satisfied or comfortable with my portrayal of Yami/Atem, but his personality for this came to me gradually the more and more I read up on Season 0 Yami, and the things I was told by a few friends. Whatever the reception my Yugi/Yami may receive, I've decided to stand by my ideas and the way I was going to write him._

 _And lastly, I would like to give some credit to a few special friends. My friend SpiralingFate has helped me quite a bit during the creation of this fanfic. I was stuck in a few ruts on this story until she started helping me and tossing out ideas and advice. And also my friend 'Yang', who further helped me when I was stuck in a few spots and was unsure of how to get out of them. Lastly, I would like to think Laura, who, without her help, I would never have finished the end of the first chapter due to being stuck. And I'd also like to think Laura for the cover image. Thank you all for all of your help, and support.)_

* * *

The death of Pyrrha Nikos was a shock to everyone, but it seemed one who suffered the most from the tragic event, aside from Jaune Arc, was Ruby Rose who had arrived at the top of the Beacon tower in time, arriving late by just mere seconds. She saw it all; the final attack that erased Pyrrha's life away, and stole her from the world forever. And for what reason? For greed, for the sinful lust for power that Cinder Fall so desperately craved that she was willing to crush anyone who would get in her own way. And while the experience was traumatic enough to cause Ruby to tap into her own latent powers which came in the form of her silver eyes, which stole one of Cinder's own eyes and rendered her a pathetic and pitiful mute, for the most part, Ruby herself hadn't completely wiped out Cinder and was rescued by her uncle Qrow.

There was nothing left of Pyrrha to give her a proper burial, thanks to Cinder who had burnt her away using her own semblance. Something that was heartbreaking and gravely affected Jaune Arc who felt just as responsible, if not more so, than Ruby Rose, for not being able to protect the redhead in the first place. Yet, both team Ruby and team JNR mourned her death by giving her a mock funeral, with each one paying their respects to her and thanking her.

It had been four weeks since Pyrrha's death.

Her death got around after it had occurred. But while Lie Ren was busy cleaning up Pyrrha's things in their shared dorm, it was then that he found some letters that Pyrrha had stashed away. And upon opening these letters, it was learned that Pyrrha had a friend back from the home that she had come from. Someone who, according to her letters, was the oldest friend she had known.

While not many had noticed, Ruby had slowly grown a bit more detached from the person she was before; her emotions slowly consuming her, and her guilt eating away at her, as she personally felt responsible for the tragedies happened. Things she kept telling herself over and over that she could have prevented if she had only been stronger and faster.

"Heya, Ruby." A lively voice greeted the Huntress from behind while she stared out into the distance.

Ruby's eyes didn't quite break away from the scenic view she was consumed by. But even despite that, her ears had recognized Nora's voice.

Ruby had been sitting on that lone bench for hours at that point. She had completely skipped her lunchtime which Ruby almost NEVER missed out on unless there was a battle with the Grimm taking place, or she was being held in detention by one of the teachers at Beacon. But she had this time; she had completely skipped her lunchtime and was just lost in her own crippling thoughts, thinking, just thinking, of every bad thing that had happened up until that point. Every bad thing that she could have prevented...If only.

Penny.

Pyrrha.

Yang losing her arm to Adam.

Blake running away and abandoning them all, once again.

And...Not having found that woman before who had infiltrated Vale and then laid that horrible siege against the place she loved so much.

"Hey, Nora." Ruby quietly mumbled.

"Whatcha doin'?" Nora said in a sing-song voice while she threw herself onto the bench and slung an arm around the Huntress' shoulders like they had been best buddies since their childhood.

"Thinking..."

"About cookies?"

"No..." Ruby gently shook her head, causing her black and red locks to bounce slightly.

"You know..." Nora's face took the form of a sly expression and she leaned towards Ruby's ear. "Ren isn't such a bad cook. He can make a pretty mean batch of cookies."

Ruby's eyes finally broke away from the surrounding trees that spanned a great radius around them; her silver eyes turning to gaze over towards Nora. Her gaze was weak, and although a smile was trying to follow behind, it was failing miserably and couldn't quite reach its proper place on her face.

"Do you ever just find yourself thinking about her?" Ruby asked in a whisper-like voice.

Nora's happy demeanor was faltering when the question was being posed before her. But her grip on Ruby's shoulder seemed to increase as a means to make up for this and she leaned against the other female's side with her head nearly reaching onto Ruby's shoulder.

"I think about her a lot..." The ginger admitted.

"Seems like there's not a day she doesn't cross my mind," Ruby stated.

"Hey, Ruby?" Nora's voice perked back up again.

"Yeah?"

"Don't go blaming yourself for her death, okay? You tried your best to save Pyrrha; you have everyone's respect for doing that, and no one faults you in not being able to reach her in time before Cinder killed her."

"If only I had been faster," Ruby said. "If only I hadn't been taking so long, if only I had known before what was going on, then...Then I could have reached her in time, I could have helped her fight Cinder. We could have won if we had just combined our strengths together.."

"Ruby..."

Ruby's lips trembled. And then her eyes began to well up as that traumatic scene began to play in her mind again: Reaching the top of the tower, only seconds late, and seeing Pyrrha being burnt into dust by the hands of Cinder.

"You did everything you could, Ruby." Nora continued to try and console her. "Pyrrha, she wouldn't want to see you tormenting yourself and blaming yourself like this; she'd want you to move on and pull yourself together again."

Ruby nodded her head as the tears streamed down her cheeks.

"Pyrrha may be gone physically," the ginger cleared her throat, "but she lives on inside of each of us, you know? So she'll never truly be gone."

"Ruby, Nora?" A calm, and serene, masculine voice called them.

Ruby and Nora turned their gaze to meet with the pink eyes of their fellow teammate, Lie Ren.

Ren had became a fairly new addition to Ruby, in the regard that, after team RWBY had practically fallen apart after the Fall of Beacon, thanks to not only Yang having her arm cut off by Adam Taurus, but also Blake who had fled from Vale and Weiss who's father who had flown to Vale to pick her up and take her back home. Ren stuck out more than the others thanks to his unusual pink colored eyes and the single tip of pink on a strand of his black hair. And while his hair appeared short in the front, there was a long ponytail that fell down to his back. Ren was dressed in a green robe that was reminiscent of a chang pao: It had pink and gold cuffs, and gold and black trimmings that reached up to the wide-styled collar. Underneath this Ren had on a black undershirt. With a pair of comfortable white pants.

Ren was standing a few feet away from them by a makeshift fire that he and Jaune had created and was roasting some marshmallows that were skewered onto freshly broken off sticks.

"MARSHMALLOWS!" That was Nora's instant reaction.

"Jaune and I decided we'd set camp since it's getting a bit dark here," Ren said. "And we thought you'd two probably enjoy some roasted marshmallows."

"But that's not all," Jaune chimed in. "Marshmallows aren't complete without s'mores."

"Oh, my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my, gosh! "S'mores actually sound really good." Ruby's hand wiped away a tear.

"There's plenty for everyone." Jaune grinned.

Ren nodded his head in agreement to Jaune's words, his hand pointing them towards the fire that already had his and Jaune's sleeping bags spread out around.

Ruby watched in complete silence as Nora made a mad-dash towards the brimming makeshift fire, and then cast her eyes down towards the ground which was covered in fallen leaves of varying different colors. Something about the colors of the leaves oddly resonated with her feelings, and although Ruby wasn't quite sure why, for a brief moment, an image of Pyrrha's gently smiling face popped up into her mind as if projecting into the leaves on the ground.

Ruby sighed and slouched her head forward, walking languidly towards the small group.

"Hey, Ruby. You hungry?" Jaune passed her a cheerful grin.

Out of everyone on this newly formed team, Jaune was easily the tallest.

Even when Pyrrha Nikos was alive, Pyrrha, who was the tallest girl in Beacon academy, was one inch shorter than him.

Jaune was still dressing in the usual attire that Ruby had met him in when she met him. He hadn't changed that much physically...And still had the same messy, short layered blonde hair.

Jaune's appearance had a striking resemblance to that of a classic knight found in fairy tales. He wore short, white plate armor that covered minimal of his black and red Pumpkin Pete hoodie. Matching white spaulders that stopped a little past his elbow joint, and brown leather sleeveless gloves. His blue jeans had a brown belt with a gold buckle, while his sheathed sword was strapped to his hip.

If Jaune was able to smile after everything that had happened and keep up his cheerful demeanor, what exactly was stopping her? She knew Jaune was the closest to Pyrrha out of everyone. So if he was able to crack a grin here and there, there was no reason that she herself couldn't do the same.

Ruby forced the frown from her face and turned it upside down; her hand waving to the tall blonde male. "Sure! You know me, Jaune, I love my sweets. Especially the chocolate...And the marshmallows."

"You mean all of it?" Jaune playfully teased.

"Okay, okay, all of it, actually." She giggled.

"Ruby, RUBY." Nora was practically screaming.

Both Ruby and Jaune turned to gaze towards the energetic ginger and when their eyes hit her, they saw a monster-sized s'mores that she had created using several layers of marshmallows, chocolate, and graham crackers. Something that quickly grabbed Jaune's attention and made him nearly start spazzing out.

"H-hey, Nora, did you save any for the rest of us?"

"Of course, Jaune! What, you think I'm a pig? I saved some for Ruby."

"Oh, well, that's great you saved some fo-wait, for Ruby?"

Ruby watched the two go at it back and forth. It seemed like the sounds of their voices were being cut off and they were talking on mute. And as she watched the two argue and bicker back and forth childishly with Nora trying to defend herself and Jaune practically boiling at the face, Ruby couldn't help but smile genuinely for the first time in weeks, and she brought a hand up to press against her lips, shaking her head.

It was the times like these that she enjoyed the most.

When no one was plagued by crippling sadness when no one had to worry about the Grimm when everyone was just happy and acting like the silly little teenagers that they all were.

Stepping forward, Ruby began to make her way towards the two and stopped in front of the campfire and sat herself down on the ground, one leg pressing forward, yet not quite touching the burning flames that lifted up into the air.

"How are you feeling, Ruby?"

Ruby's eyes lifted up to see Ren standing beside her with his usual, neutral expression on his face.

"Oh," she said in surprise. "I'm doing fine, Ren. You know me."

"I also know that you've been through a great deal," Ren stated. "We do worry, Ruby."

Ren's words made the smile nearly falter from her face. Her eyebrows seemed to budge slightly and grow lower, but she was quick to push the fading smile right back up to her face again and waved her hand at him as if she was trying to dismiss his words.

"I'm fine, Ren," she assured. "Really."

"Just know that you can always talk to us, Ruby. We're your friends."

"I...Know Ren. And I really do appreciate that, thank you."

"Of course, Ruby."

"But, but, NORA! How are the rest of us supposed to eat if you and Ren just ate all of the s'mores? We're hungry too you know! You just expect us all to sit out in these woods and just starve to death while we have nothing else to eat?"

"You didn't bring anything else?" Ren was shocked.

Jaune stiffened in place as if he just got caught with his hand in the cookies jar. "W—well...N-not exactly, I mean, I was going to...But NORA here wouldn't stop hitting me with a barrage of questions about where we were going, even when I told her over and over that she should be asking RUBY."

"Guys, it's okay," Ruby waved her hands at them to try and calm them. "I think I saw some berries over there in those bushes."

"You see Nora? Berries! We have to eat berries all because you ate the s'mores."

"Well," Nora bit her lip. "Maybe you should have brought some extra food, Jaune."

"I was going to." Jaune stomped his foot. "But then you started rambling on."

Ren and Ruby's eyes flickered back and forth between the two as they continued arguing over food. And Ren just shook his head at the display of immaturity. While Ruby was, of course, taking this with better humor and was nearly cracking up in laughter.

"This is going to be an interesting journey, Ruby..."

"You got that right." She nodded in agreement. "But at least Jaune and Nora are along."

"Oh, yes. They will..." Ren paused, just watching. "Certainly provide plenty of entertainment."

After the colossal battle of the century over the s'mores took place, a battle which was enough to make even the Grimm themselves run away and retreat in terror, Ren put out the fire and Ruby, Jaune, Nora and Ren all got in their sleeping bags after making a tent that was big enough for all of them and then drifted away into the sweet, relaxing embrace of the night. The gentle sounds of owls and crickets chirping replacing the former crackling of the campfire. And the night took them away.

While many of them were able to sleep comfortably, Ruby was rolling and tossing and turning in her sleep, mumbling incoherently. Or at least it would have been incoherent if anyone were awake to actually listen to what she was saying. And of course...Her dreaming wasn't making anything easier for her since it was showcasing all the unfortunate events that had happened leading up to their journey. Such as Penny being torn apart by Pyrrha and Pyrrha's then-newfound powers, and then Pyrrha's demise at the hands of Cinder.

It was needless to say that Ruby's slumber was anything but peaceful.

When daybreak had arrived and the sound of birds singing awoke them all, Ruby emerged from the tent the latest out of everyone. And she walked towards the group of friends.

"So, Ruby, what do we do now?"

"Well, Jaune, uhh..." Ruby brought a hand to her head and thumped a few fingers. "I think we should continue heading east. We need to get to Mistral."

"We should stop at some shops on the way there," Ren suggested. "If we are truly out of food, then it'd be wise to re-stock on further supplies. That way when we are hungry again, we have food to ration."

"I hope they have pancakes in a can there."

"NORA." Jaune scolded.

"Right," Ruby scratched her nose with her hand. "We head to the east and continue to Mistral."

Gathering up their items, the four resumed their long adventure and headed deeper into the heart of the forest.

As they continued deeper into the forests that leaned on them from above and took up the shape of the perfect canopy, Ruby's eyes snapped down towards the ground as tremors began to vibrate from every direction around them. She knew that this could only mean one thing: Something huge was approaching them. And if she had to guess, whatever it was, was already within a good radius near them.

"That sounds...Really big."

"Think it's a Grimm?"

"What else would be out here?" Ruby's eyes shifted towards Nora who shrugged.

"You know," Jaune made his way towards Ruby and then shook his head. "We were doing fine until just now, you know? I mean, yeah, we'd been fighting Grimm a lot for a few days, but then it all stopped for a while and we had a chance to rest. And just when we were getting comfortable, this happens."

Ruby was nearly clamping down on her lips.

She knew if this was a Grimm, she was probably the one who had summoned it there in the first place.

She knew if she kept letting her emotions get the better of her, they'd be a hot-spot for the Grimm. Her emotions were what was feeding them, and they would keep coming again, again, again and again until Ruby had repressed her negative emotions.

"Here it comes..." Ruby's eyes locked onto the trembling leaves of the trees and bore witness to the trees being trampled over as if they were nothing. And it was then that she saw the Grimm of titanic size: It had the body of a spider with dark hairs at its feet, eyes like that of a fly but bright red, and horns like that of a steer. It also had a long tail that resembled that of a crocodile's, complete with scales. And what Grimm wouldn't be complete without the trademark bone-textured white face and baffling red markings?

"What kind of Grimm is that?" Jaune's mouth gaped.

It was certainly the most unique looking Grimm that they had ever seen before. And...Possibly the most intimidating given its size.

"Just smash it down!"

"I'm with Nora." Ruby reached to her side and withdrew Crescent Rose. She then turned to look back at Jaune and Ren with a look of determination replacing the former look of awe and surprise. "Let's just smash it down and get it out of the way."

Ruby wasted no time in reaching for Crescent Rose from her side while the others readied themselves by drawing their own.

The silver-eyed teen bounced in place from the tremors of the colossal Grimm, only to fall back down again from the place she was standing; lifted up like she was just as weightless as a miniature branch on the ground.

It was while she was studying the huge Grimm that Ruby began to question how they were even supposed to harm something that big: Surely its defenses given its large sizer were immense. And something so big must have possessed some astonishing durability.

"All right everyone. Let's take this Grimm down and proceed to the town."

"So, what's the plan?" Jaune shifted his gaze towards her.

"Uhhh," Ruby squinted her eyes at him and began to laugh nervously. "I uhh...Didn't think that far yet."

"What?"

"I guess...Uhh. I'll take it head-on. You, Nora and Ren, aim for its legs."

"Because the bigger they are the harder they fall?" Jaune gave a thumbs up.

"Exactly." Ruby clapped her hands.

Ruby wasn't sure how great her plan was. But it was a spur of the moment thing since her brain had just had a crashing moment. But any plan was better than no plan. Especially...When there wasn't even much time to think, to begin with.

Ruby quickly sped on ahead leaving the others.

She stopped once she was in front of the monstrous Grimm, then when the Grimm finally had caught her within its sight, Ruby took off running towards it with Crescent Rose close to her side.

Jaune cautiously closed in on one of its legs with his sword at his side, and his shield ready to be drawn higher if he need to guard. Ren, on the other hand, kept his distance and aimed the automatic pistols and squeezed his fingers against the trigger and fired from the spot that he stood at. Nora took the physical approach towards the creature, her intention to smash it as hard as she could with Magnhild.

As one of the huge thick hairy legs came to stomp back onto the ground with the step the hybrid Grimm took, Ruby quickly somersaulted out of the way with a tight grip holding onto Crescent Rose. She then resumed her rush towards the beast and dodged its next step, beginning to wonder if the beast was even taking notice of her being directly below it.

Staying as quick on her feet as always, when the next leg came towards her, Ruby sprinted full blast towards it and began running up the hairy leg, making her way to the top of the Grimm. The sounds of Ren's pistols firing energy blasts filling her ears, along with Nora's loud laughter.

This was surprisingly easy. Too easy, she thought.

But it was the moment that Ruby had scaled to the top and reached its back that she was completely taken by surprise. As the Grimm had turned its head back to look her dead in the face and then open its mouth, letting out a horrible screech that was unlike anything to ever cross her ears before. And the sudden increase of pressure from the wind given by this mighty roar was enough to push Ruby back, sending her flying off a good few yards until she was tossed right into a tree.

Jaune was the first one to see her sent off flying by the increase of wind current brought on by the simple act of the Grimm roaring.

"That thing just blew Ruby away. Did you see that?" Jaune quickly maneuvered passed the leg as it stomped down towards the ground.

"What?" The ginger was moving her head back and forth so fast that her head was starting to spin. But Nora's moment of distraction gave the massive Grimm enough time to launch an attack on her: The Grimm had spat out a web right from its mouth and hit Nora in it; immobilizing the ginger in place.

"Nora, are you all right?" Inquired Ren who was still firing rounds from his green pistols.

"I think I'm in..." She couldn't help herself. "A sticky situation.."

The Grimm was about to repeat the same move it had on Nora on the unsuspecting Ren. But this was halted when a powerful shell came zipping by and flew right into the face of the Grimm, creating an explosion that briefly blocked out Jaune, Ren and Nora's vision.

"Leave Jaune alone." It was Ruby.

In a heated fury of repetitive rounds that had Ruby's finger nearly melting into her beloved weapon, the Huntress fired away giving the Grimm almost zero time to even react to the assault.

"Nora, what's going on, what are you doing?" Jaune called out as another tremor thundered on the ground and knocked him right off balance, causing him to tumble back.

"I guess you could say I'm...Caught in its web."

Ren cracked a very faint grin at the poorly put together pun from the ginger. But then he took advantage of the opportunity of the mammoth-sized monster's attention being snagged away by Jaune and Ruby and quickly began to run towards one of its hind legs with his pistols transforming into daggers.

"Hey, you!" Ruby cried out in the most confident voice she could gather. "I've got a surprise for you. A surprise from my beautiful Crescent Rose!"

Ruby inserted another magazine into the scythe which was currently set into sniper mode. While it was true that she didn't often choose many elemental dust ammunition, Ruby had one in mind that she had been itching to use for quite some time. And of course, the Grimm would never even expect to be hit with what she had in mind. Heck, none of them probably even knew what trick Ruby had planned up her sleeve.

"All right..." Jaune mumbled while he rose Crocea Mors into the air. "Time for its leg."

Just as Ren had reached the Grimm's hind leg, he was stopped almost dead silent in his tracks when another shot came flying towards the Grimm and hit it smack dab in one of its multiple red eyes, setting its eye ablaze and causing it to let out an ear-piercing wail that was the stuff of nightmares.

Ruby fist pumped upon her shot hitting the creature; she was practically bouncing up and down.

Nora twisted and turned her body trying to get free of the webbing that she was still stuck in, but then she just comically blew one of her short bangs back and surrendered herself to her sticky fate while the others fought without her.

Ruby launched another round from the tree she had her feet securely planted on, again going for another accurate eye-shot, only this time with Jaune swinging his sword towards the beast's' leg while Ren slashed in a quick circular motion that sent the razor-edged green blades digging into the inky black hairy leg.

"Ren, Jaune," Ruby called out to them from the tree she was hidden in, "be sure to stay on your guard! You don't want to get sent flying by its stomping."

Ruby stole the main attention of the Grimm by blasting another fiery ammo towards its face. But this time her hit seemed to miss, and the Grimm, letting out another ferocious roar that sent both the unprepared Jaune and Ren flying into opposite directions from the battle-scene, quickly started its way towards her with quaking-stomps onto the ground.

Ruby quickly reverted Crescent Rose to its original mode and she charged the Grimm head-on, jumping and darting from projectiles of web that were shot out from its mouth in an attempt to render her stationary like the hapless Nora Valkyrie who was still trying to wriggle herself free.

The crimson wonder seemed to soar through the air for a few brief moments while she pulled Crescent Rose towards her, ready to make a killing blow on the creature.

Running a hand through short raven black locks, a single muscular hand came to press down into the grassy turf as Ren rose back up to his feet alongside Jaune who had landed next to him. And both of the males directed their gaze back towards Ruby, who they both quickly began to rush back to.

But before either of them could reach her, Ruby was knocked up into the air by the resulting shockwave when the Grimm slammed its tail full-force into the ground.

"Okay, am I the only one who thinks this was a bad idea? I mean, I should be the one doing the smashing. Wait, wait, smashing? Isn't this whole fight SMASHING? Anyone, anyone? No...? ….. Come on, guys." When you were stuck in a web, what else was there to do but make jokes? Nora sighed and drooped her head in defeat.

With Ruby knocked out of the way, Jaune and Ren far enough away that it would take them a few moments to catch up to the spot they were blown away from, the Grimm locked onto Nora. And the moment Nora realized this, an awkward smile carved across her face and her eyes dilated, her arms soon coming to flap up and down in the sticky web in an attempt to break free of her the trap that left her at the creature's mercy.

"Uhh...Hi." Nora sheepishly blurted out.

"This just went from bad to worse," Jaune said.

"If we just hurry, we may be able to reach Nora before it reaches her."

Jaune looked at Ren. "It's that wishful thinking that's been keeping us going this long."

The Grimm was getting closer and closer to the ginger. And by this point, it was only two or three feet away from her.

But then Ruby fell back down and smacked onto its back just as it was reaching Nora. And Ruby grunted with a loud 'oof' when her petite body hit the creature's back, yet she didn't let this keep her down at all and Ruby quickly shot up and started rushing down towards the beast with Crescent Rose tightly clenched in hand.

It was now or never.

"You know, I could REALLY use some help right about now!" Nora frantically moved her head back and forth as if looking for some kind of positive signs of hope.

Luckily for the ginger, Ruby had already reached the head of the Grimm. And then Ruby leaped off its head, disappearing into a storm of rose petals before another gust of scattering petals appeared on the ground in front of Nora.

Just as Jaune and Ren had arrived back to their respective places on the battlefield, Ruby had given her assistance to Nora in a race against time to try and free her from the web of the Grimm, something that had her heart-pounding.

Jaune and Ren went for the legs.

Jaune and Ren's efforts proved to be just the help that Ruby needed, as the hacking and slashing at the furry legs finally caused the creature to collapse with a massive thud that sent trees flying in every which direction, and the force to blow Nora's hair back and smack her in the face with her own bangs. And unfortunately...Smacked in the face with a tree branch that nearly knocked the ginger out while she saw dozens of tiny stars floating around her head.

"Victory will belong to team JNRR! Evil cannot stand against Crescent ROSE!"

"I still say we should be called team Pancakes."

"Nora now's not the time for this." Ren's eyes shot towards her.

"Shouldn't it be team RJNR?" Jaune questioned before being blown away again.

"Does any of it really matter right now?" Ruby inquired, nearly getting distracted from the battle at hand. But then she quickly remembered about the Grimm and loaded up another fire dust bullet. But this time? This one was going to contain twice the power of last time...Unfortunately, being out on such a waning adventure for so long, this would be Ruby's last one. So she had to make the shot count.

Firing point-blank at the Grimm, Ruby launched the shell at the creature and the moment that it hit the Grimm in the face, the beast' entire body became lit on fire.

The final shrill scream that the Grimm let out signaled the end of the battle. Then the creature simply burned into the biggest pile of ash that any of them had seen before, and the flames seemed to evaporate into thin air.

With victory theirs, Ruby freed Nora from the web of the defeated Grimm and they continued to the town.

The town was a quiet little town. It looked so simple and less advanced than some of the more fanciful parts of Remnant. It was mostly comprised of straw huts and farmers and fishers, with animals aplenty and a simple dirt-road that seemed to travel all the way through the town. The people even dressed accordingly and wore clothes that would make people like the Schnees turn their nose in disgust.

As they wandered through the town and observed the people, Ruby pointed an index finger towards a modest looking building that had an aged sign that crudely had 'INN' written on it in big, fading bold letters.

After such a long and grueling journey, they decided to make the town their resting spot for the night. And after renting themselves a room, Ruby sat down on an old, creaky wooden chair that she was almost positive would cave in even with her small amount of weight, and stretched her hands onto the chipped wooden table. And she took out a piece of paper and a pencil and began to write among the paper.

Of course, it was only right to inform this friend of Pyrrha's untimely demise.

Ruby, feeling responsible for Pyrrha's death in the first place, for her being too tardy to reach her in time in the first place, took it upon herself as the duty to inform this friend of Pyrrha's tragic death. And she did it by means of pen and paper, such as the means of staying in contact with this friend had been chosen by Pyrrha.

"Dear, Yugi. My name is Ruby Rose, and I happen to be a good friend of Pyrrha's. I hate to inform you, but Pyrrha has passed on. She was killed in a battle just last week. I really hate even writing this to you, but I thought it was only fair that you knew the truth."

For a moment, Ruby's little scatterbrain had stopped midway into the letter. She had popped the button on the pen, but then sighed and closed her eyes as her face clearly showed signs of weakness from the task she had taken upon herself. The Huntress hit the button again, bringing it back out. "Oh, a friend of mine was cleaning out the place and then he found the letters between you two, so I decided to go ahead and write to you on Pyrrha's behalf...I'm...Really, really sorry for you to have to find out this way."

The letter sent by Ruby was never returned.


End file.
